Blog Post

Google Play finally makes it easy to find tablet apps

Finally, searching for apps on your Android tablet will no longer be a shot in the dark. Google(s goog) announced on its Android Developers blog Thursday that tablet users will now see a “Designed for tablets” section as the default view in Google Play.

This update fixes what has long been one of my prime arguments against Android tablets. Yes, many phone apps look and work on tablets just fine, but before now there was no simple way to determine which was which. Now, any apps and games that don’t meet Google’s “Designed for tablets” criteria will be marked as “Designed for phones.”

This is a huge step forward for Android tablets, and should help narrow the gap between Google Play and Apple’s App Store(s aapl), which has long distinguished between phone and tablet apps in separate windows.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this attracts more tablet app developers as well. There are plenty of Android tablets out there, and now there is far less chance for a new tablet app to get lost in the mix among a number of phone apps.

I’m curious to see just how many big-name apps have made it to the tablet section as compared to iOS, but this is certainly a step in the right direction for Google.